Miradolls is a small German BJD company featuring the resin dolls of artist Mira Marie. While a small number of her hand-cast dolls are still available, the artist has since released two pro-cast dolls, Pip and most recently Cerridwen.
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Q: How did you become interested in making dolls? What were your first dolls?
A: The first doll which I made, was a rag doll for my daughter. I found a tutorial and made this doll as a Christmas present. Later I visited a doll show and saw very different artist dolls and portrait dolls.
I went back home and started to sculpt a face. This doll, made of air-drying clay, was a little girl. My daughter was 6 years old and she was my model. Often she said: “don’t look at me like that.”
It was long before the doll was finished. For a time I made only childlike dolls.
Q: So, when did you discover ball-jointed dolls?
A: I think it was about 2006, I was on friendly terms with a doll collector, and she showed me Seola from Dollstown and a Unoa doll. I searched the internet and found a lot of websites with BJDs and impressive Asian doll art. Never before had I seen so many different fantastic dolls like that! I was inspired by the desire to make my own BJD.
Q: Why did you decide to make a BJD rather than any other type of doll?
A: For a while, I made rigid dolls and figures of Paperclay and LaDoll, both air-drying modeling clays. Often I would attend doll shows as an exhibitor. I always had trouble with broken fingers on my dolls, and it was horrible to pack up inflexible figures in sitting positions. It also seemed to be a good way to make jointed dolls out of an unbreakable material just like BJDs made of resin.
But it was a long journey. My first self-made BJD was Mei-Li, sculpted of LaDoll and cast in Liquaché, a liquid paper maché. Soon after I tried to work with resin.
Q: What was the first doll that you cast in resin? Did you cast it yourself?
A: My first doll in resin was “Achat”. She was hand-cast by me as a limited edition of 10. At the beginning, it was difficult to make perfect molds. I wasted some expensive material. Besides it is very time-consuming to sand a hand-cast doll, but I worked in this manner a long time.
Q:When did MiraDolls open? What dolls have you offered on your website so far?
A: I decide to rename my doll studio in 2010 and called it “miradolls” (with uncapitalized M) But well before I had used this name on the internet. On my website are on view the last limited artist cast dolls. Every doll is available as a full set. I don’t want to make more of them. And of course, my site has the dolls Cerridwen and Pip, each cast by different professional casting companies.
Q: Can you tell me more about your new doll Cerridwen?
A: In fact, Cerridwen is the beginning of a new period. She was the first model which I sent to a casting company. Pip was the second, but she was finished earlier.
At first, I planned to make a female warrior. Then I wrote a very short story about two elves in a forest. That´s because I learn English in my free time and the story was an exercise. It was so fascinating that I decide to make it as a whole project combined with dolls. The main thing is, all dolls and coming creatures will fit together in direct proportion.
Cerridwen is small enough to create a nice set with other small dolls and some beautiful decorations to take pictures.
Q: Are you working on a new doll at this time? If so, can you tell me about it?
A: At the moment I´m working on a few projects at one time. First of all, Pip needs a pet, it will be a very peculiar pet, but she will like it. Later maybe I’ll add a sister for Pip or a playfellow, I don´t know it exactly.
Photos above from top: early dolls MaiLi and Achat
Gallery of Mira Marie’s work
Miradolls company website
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Pip & Cerridwen
Pip:
Earlier Dolls:
